Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season March-April 2016 | Page 22

{ program notes
where he has directed many productions,
including One Night in Miami, Amadeus,
dance of the holy ghosts (City Paper Top Ten
Productions, 2013), The Mountaintop, An
Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man
and Naomi Wallace’s Things of Dry Hours.
In 2014, Mr. Kwei-Armah was nominated for Stage Directors and Choreographer Society’s Zelda Fichandler Award
for best theater director. Among his works
as a playwright are Elmina’s Kitchen and
Let There Be Love as well as A Bitter Herb,
Statement of Regret and Seize the Day.
His latest play, Beneatha’s Place, debuted
at Center Stage in 2013 as part of the
groundbreaking Raisin Cycle. Mr. KweiArmah’s other directorial credits include
Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew
at the Lark Play Development Center in
New York’s Public Theater production
of Much Ado About Nothing, the world
premiere of Detroit ’67 (nominated for
Best Director) at the Public Theater, and
the world premiere of The Liquid Plain at
the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Mr. Kwei-Armah has served on the
boards of the National Theatre and The
Tricycle Theatre, both in London, and as
Artistic Director for the World Arts Festival
in Senegal. He was named the chancellor
of the University of the Arts London, and
in 2012, was named an Officer of the Most
Excellent Order of the British Empire.
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE last appeared
with the BSO in September 2014,
narrating Copland’s Lincoln Portrait,
with Marin Alsop conducting.

Lauren Snouffer

Lauren Snouffer is
a versatile soprano
whose performances
in the current season
include the Mozart Requiem with Harry
Christophers and the Handel & Haydn
Society of Boston, Poulenc’s Gloria with
the Houston Ballet, and Handel’s Messiah
with Mercury Baroque. On the opera
stage, Ms. Snouffer returns to Houston
Grand Opera in two productions, singing
Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and
Carrie Pipperidge in Carousel.

20 O v ertur e |

www. bsomusic .org

Highlights of past seasons include
the Atlanta Opera as Susanna in Le
nozze di Figaro, the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall and Lincoln
Center for concert performances of
Strauss’ Daphne, and a New York Philharmonic debut in HK Gruber’s Gloria
— A Pig Tale. Ms. Snouffer has given
performances of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony with Marin Alsop and the
São Paulo Symphony; and Handel’s
Messiah with Nicholas McGegan and
the Houston Symphony.
A recent graduate of the Houston
Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Snouffer has
performed with the company in L’italiana
in Algeri, Show Boat, The Rape of Lucretia,
and Il barbiere di Siviglia among others.
She was a winner of a 2013 Sara Tucker
Study Grant from the Richard Tucker
Music Foundation, a Richard F. Gold Career Grant bestowed by Houston Grand
Opera. A native of Houston, TX, Ms.
Snouffer graduated from Rice University
and The Juilliard School.
Lauren Snouffer last appeared
with the BSO in June of 2015, as
Cunegonde in the BSO’s semi-staged
production of Bernstein’s Candide,
with Marin Alsop conducting.

About the concert:
Leonore Overture No. 2, opus 72a

Ludwig van Beethoven

Born in Bonn, Germany, December 16, 1770;
died in Vienna, Austria, March 26, 1827

Beethoven wrote just one opera, Fidelio,
but it probably cost him more effort than
all nine of his symphonies put together.
Unsatisfied with his creation, he composed three versions over the decade 18041814 and wrote four overtu